Kenya Railways has received its first batch of 1620-type wagons at the Port of Mombasa.

The 60 wagons are planned to be deployed on the Standard Gauge Railway line once it starts operations in June. The consignment has been offloaded under supervision of the China Road and Bridge.

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Expected to aid decongestion of Port of Mombasa, the wagons will be used to move cargo between Mombasa and Nairobi.

Kenya Railways stated that with the early arrival, the company has some time to start testing and commissioning to prepare them for trial operations ahead of their scheduled launch on 1 June.

"This is the fastest we shall have moved such amount of cargo on this corridor."

The network is capable of holding 850m-long trains that move at speeds of 80kmph.

CapitalBusiness reported Kenya Railways managing director Atanas Maina saying: “This is the fastest we shall have moved such amount of cargo on this corridor, which helps cargo owners to maximise on economies of scale, better supply chain and logistics management which should eventually translate to lower cost of transport and logistics for the country and the region.”

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So far, the company has received eight freight haulage heavy-duty locomotives for mainline use out of the total of 43 that  have been ordered.

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